His years of hand-to-hand combat spurred Moshe to write this book that presents his unusual self-defense method. The book is based on all movements of defense, where the first movement is the natural reactive movement that a person does without thinking. He concluded that any effective self-defense system must be based on a person’s automatic movements when attacked.

Shortly after Jiu-Jitsu and Self Defense was published, Feldenkrais left Tel Aviv to continue his education in Paris, where he met Jigoro Kano, the founder of Judo. After reviewing Jiu-Jitsu and Self Defense, Kano engaged Feldenkrais to co-found the Jiu-Jitsu Club de France.

Moshe Feldenkrais, D.Sc. (1904 – 1984), developer of the Feldenkrais Method®, was an engineer, physicist, martial artist, and student of human development. Born in eastern Europe, he emigrated to Palestine as a young man. Later he studied at the Sorbonne and worked in the Joliot Curie laboratory in Paris during the 1930s. His interest in Ju-Jitsu brought him into contact with Professor Kano, who developed Judo. Dr. Feldenkrais was a co-founder of the Ju-Jitsu Club of Paris and was one of the first Europeans to earn a black belt in Judo. Escaping the Nazi advance, he went to Britain and worked on anti-submarine research for the Admiralty. In the 1940s, he began to develop his Method and wrote his first book on the subject. He authored many seminal books on martial arts, movement, learning, human consciousness, and somatic experience. Dr. Feldenkrais worked with people with a wide range of needs, from children with Cerebral Palsy to performers such as the violinist Yehudi Menuhin.

Moti (Mordehai) Nativ, a retired colonel from the Israel Defense Forces, is a certified Feldenkrais Method and Martial Arts teacher. Moti has graduated from the Jerusalem 1 Feldenkrais training in 1994 and served as the president of the Israeli Feldenkrais Guild. Moti began studying Martial Arts in 1966, and his martial arts practice includes wrestling, Judo, and Krav Maga. He holds a black belt in Judo, and he is a certified Krav Maga instructor. Moti is Dai Shihan (master teacher) of Bujinkan school of Budo TaiJutsu. He is a member of this school since 1975, and since 1995 he has led the training of Bujinkan teachers in Israel. He founded the Bujinkan Shiki (Awareness) Dojo. Moti has explored the peculiar way that brought Moshe Feldenkrais from the land of Israel to become a Judo Master in France and England and the influence of the Martial Arts on the development of the Feldenkrais Method.